The emerging field of nanotechnology is currently gaining a lot of attention across many industries. Nanotechnology allows scientists to manipulate individual atoms and molecules to create unique materials and even micro-scale devices, and this is leading to a wide range of applications in clothing, textiles, electronics and even food and medicine.

Sounds great, right? Except for the fact that, like genetic modification of food crops, nanotechnology tampers with Mother Nature in a way that’s largely untested for safety. And here’s something really bizarre: The pharmaceutical industry may soon begin using nanotechnology to encode drug tablets and capsules with brand and tracking data that you swallow as part of the pill.

To really explain how this works, let me simplify how nanotechnology works so you’ll see why this is so bizarre (and potentially dangerous). Instead of using materials and elements as they’re found in nature to build and construct things, nanotechnologists are deconstructing the basic building blocks of these materials and elements to make completely new ones. In other words, nanoscientists are reconstructing the molecular building blocks of our world without yet knowing what it will do to humans and to the environment.

The long-term consequences of nanotechnology are still largely unknown because not a single formidable study has ever been conducted on this emerging science that proves it to be safe. In fact, most of the studies that have been conducted on nanotechnology show that it’s actually detrimental to health and to the environment (which I’ll cover further, below).

But that hasn’t stopped Big Pharma from potentially adopting it for use in a new tracking and identification system that could be integrated into the very drug pills and capsules that millions of people swallow every day.

By the way, I’ve also posted a video explaining all this. Check it out here: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=93626…

Nano-encrypted barcode in every dose

Now don’t get me wrong. Big Pharma isn’t the only industry using nanotechnology despite a complete lack of safety evidence. “Nanoparticles” are present in sunscreens, fabric protectors, plastic food liners, and other products. But what’s different about the nanoparticles soon to be found in a pill near you is that they are capable of storing data about where the drug was made, when it was made, and where it has traveled.

It’s a lot like the barcodes used on parcels to track them along their shipping journeys, except that in the drugs, it’s a molecular barcode that people will be swallowing. During digestion of the pill, the nano data bits will be distributed throughout your body and can become lodged in your body’s tissues.

A company that’s introducing this system for pharmaceuticals, says it this way on its website:

“In the NanoEncryption process, NanoCodes are incorporated directly onto tablets, capsules and vial caps. These codes may be associated with an unlimited amount of manufacturer-determined data, including product information (strength and expiration date), manufacturing information (location date, batch and lot number) and distribution information (country, distributor, wholesaler and chain).”

So if you take these drugs, you’ll be swallowing nano “hard drives” that can store data — data that will be distributed throughout your body and can be read by medical technicians who could then track what drugs you took in the past. And what’s the rationale for this? According to the company, it’s to “defen[d] against pharmaceutical counterfeiting and illegal diversion”.

It sounds like a good idea, right? Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot more to this technology than meets the eye.

Editor’s Note: UPDATE 1 — The company originally mentioned in this story now denies what NaturalNews reported. Their own website text as quoted in this story, was apparently misleading, and they now claim they do not use nano “material” of any kind to achieve their nano encoding. We are temporarily removing the name of this company from this story while we attempts to sort out the truth of the matter. In the past, we’ve had many company rush to change their own website text after we ran a story on them. All quotes published in this story were 100% accurate at the time of publication, and we made a good faith attempt to report this story accurately.

The dangers of nanotechnology

Though you’ll rarely hear about it in the mainstream media, little is known about what nanoparticles really do to people’s bodies and to the environment in the long term. Studies continue to show that nanoparticles tend to easily build up in the body where they can potentially cause damage. They also behave differently than the materials from which they are derived and constructed, posing unknown hazards.

Researchers from the University of Rochester discovered back in 2006 that nanoparticles are easily absorbed throughout the body via inhalation. According to the report, nanoparticles travel from the nasal cavity directly to brain tissue where they deposit themselves and cause brain inflammation. In other words, nanoparticles very easily cross the blood-brain barrier, which is the mechanism by which the brain normally protects itself from foreign materials.

The same study, which is part of a five-year, $5.5 million investigation into the safety of nanoparticles, also determined that this artificial micro-matter makes its way to the lungs when inhaled.

Nanoparticles are different from their parent particles

Nanoparticle use is on the rise based on the flawed assumption that if the elements and compounds from which they are derived are considered safe, then the nanoparticles themselves must also be safe. But research reveals that this simply isn’t the case.

A study from 2004 found that low levels of fullerenes, a type of carbon nanoparticle used in electronics and other materials, changed the entire physiology of fish that were exposed to it. Exposure to just 0.5 parts per million (ppm) over the course of two days literally caused significant brain damage in these fish.

“Given the rapid onset of brain damage, it is important to further test and assess the risks and benefits of this new technology (nanotechnology) before use becomes even more widespread,” emphasized Dr. Eva Oberdorster, author of the study, back in 2004.

Again in 2007, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, discovered that iron nanoparticles are toxic to nerve cells and nerve function. Even though iron is a necessary mineral that benefits the body in its natural form, its nanoparticle is quite dangerous, it turns out.

According to Sungho Jin, senior author of the study which was published in the journal Biomaterials, nanoparticles in general “may not be as safe as we had once thought.”

But none of the nation’s regulatory bodies seem to be paying any attention to these studies, or to the many others I didn’t mention that also highlight the toxicity of nanoparticles. Instead, they’ve allowed nanoparticles to invade our society without so much as a single piece of credible evidence showing that they’re safe.

Based on all the research, we know that nanoparticles cross through the skin, lungs, and blood-brain barrier, where they lodge themselves in body tissues. We also know that their compositional differences cause them to be highly reactive with other chemicals, particularly in the body where they create damaging free radicals. But there’s more to this story… it gets even worse.

Nanoparticles are safe in food?

It’s amazing to me that altered molecules with no scientific backing of safety are now being deliberately allowed in the food supply. It would seem unacceptable to allow their use in food manufacturing equipment because of the potential for residue contamination, but that’s exactly where they are being used right now.

According to a DiscoveryNews report from 2009, nanoparticles are everywhere in the food supply. Externally, they’re used in the packaging, containers, films, and other storage materials to kill bacteria and increase shelf life. Internally, they’re used to enhance or alter the flavors and textures of food.

Nanoparticles are even being used in some vitamins, supplements and other “nutraceuticals” to allegedly improve nutrient assimilation and delivery.

The report actually encourages the use of nanotechnology in food, citing all the potential benefits (but remaining silent on all the dangers). One section even hawks nanotechnology as a “green” technology.

But the real truth is that using nanoparticles in food is a grant experiment with an unknown outcome. When it comes to nanotechnology in food, there’s a lot of speculation and pseudo-science being peddled as scientific fact, but there’s truly no scientific backing to support the safe use of man-made nanoparticles in things we consume.

Do the people actually benefit from nanotechnology?

It’s quite common for big industry to persuade the public into accepting new technologies based on promises that they will make their lives better and safer. And that’s exactly what’s happening with nanotechnology: We’re all being sold a bill of goods on something that’s entirely unproven.

And getting back to the issue of embedding nanoparticles in drugs, the whole argument for why this is necessary stems from the notion that there’s a lot of drug fraud occurring, and that it could be stopped if only drugs contained proprietary nanocode data that could be read from your body tissues. But does this benefit the consumer in any way? Who really stands to benefit from this?

Protecting their monopolies

Most NaturalNews readers already know this, but when a pharmaceutical company creates a new drug, it patents it so that no other company can sell it until the patent expires. After acquiring FDA approval for the drug, the company then sells it for thousands of times more than what it costs to produce it. This is the FDA-enforced monopoly known as the modern pharmaceutical industry.

How does this tie into nano protection for drugs? Since drugs are exclusively owned and protected by 20-year patents here in the U.S., which allows drug companies to charge whatever they want for them with no competition, Big Pharma stands to benefit tremendously from a technology that ensures no one else can “counterfeit” its patented drugs.

Because right now, all those counterfeit imitations (which are actually the same chemicals without the brand name) are sold for far less than the brand name drugs, and some people are buying them because they can’t afford the real thing. By integrating nanotechnology into each and every drug pill, it will be easier for Big Pharma to verify and control the drugs people are taking.

Nano-protected pills can be scanned by a detection device that will verify their authenticity and trace them back to the factories where they were manufactured, the warehouses where they were distributed, the pharmacies where they were stocked and sold, and so on. But here’s the part where this all turns Big Brother: The same scanning technology can theoretically be used to scan your body tissues and determine which drugs you’ve been taking, who sold them, where you bought them, where they were made and possibly even how long you’ve been taking them.

By swallowing these nano-protected pills, you are essentially turning your body into a walking Big Pharma hard drive that’s storing all kinds of data on your particular drug habits. This data could be read by law enforcement or even used against you in a court of law. It’s sort of like swallowing RFID technology that tracks your medication use.

Take your approved meds, or else

A few years ago, a friend of mine showed me a clever device that uses a laser to detect antioxidant levels in the body. It basically takes a reading based on the molecular signature of antioxidants in your skin. It uses a blue laser to produce a number revealing your antioxidant level. (Mine was very high, something like 90,000 on this machine.)

Theoretically, a similar detection device could be used to scan patients for nano particles to see whether or not they’ve taken their meds for the day, for the week, or even for the year. You could be scanned by a laser that you don’t even see, and the government or anyone else could “read” your entire history of medication use. This information could be used against you in many ways:

• To deny you employment.
• To deny you health insurance coverage.
• To serve as evidence against you in a court of law.
• To take away your children by labeling you mentally unstable.
• To force you to take vaccines that you’ve been avoiding.

… and so on. This is a “drug enforcement” technology that makes all your private medication habits easily and instantly available to Big Brother and health industry drug enforcers who want you to “take all your meds.”

As such, this technology could further destroy health freedom. The federal government would no doubt attempt to use this technology to control your medication and vaccination intake while enforcing your compliance with random scanning of your hand or other tissues.

Imagine this scenario. Your government-approved doctor says you have a mental disorder because you prefer healthy foods (See my recent article on “orthorexia” if you don’t know what I’m talking about), and he prescribes you a brand name drug to treat it. You decide that eating healthy is normal and you refuse to take the drug. The next time you go in for a checkup, your doctor scans you to check your nanoparticle count and discovers that you haven’t been taking your meds. Since he ordered you to take them and you didn’t, he assesses you a fine and tells you begin taking them or else face potential arrest and prison time.

This scenario is entirely fictitious at the moment, but with the way things are going with Big Brother and Big Pharma, it’s a very real possibility in the near future. Nano technologies can be used in precisely this way to enforce compliance with things like drug prescriptions and treatment mandates. Big Brother will have access to your medical records because they’ll have been implanted into your body tissues through nanotechnology, sort of like radio-frequency identification (RFID) for pharmaceuticals.

It’s a way for the drug industry to turn a human body into a compliant profit machine. And it’s being marketed right now.

Real questions that need to be answered about nanotechnology

It’s not my intention to sound alarmist about nanotechnology, but rather to ask some obvious questions that have yet to be answered. Why has nanotechnology essentially been approved for practically any and every use with absolutely no credible backing showing that it’s safe? Why have most of the studies showing its dangers been ignored by most mainstream scientists? Why are nano particles about to start showing up in our pharmaceuticals?

In theory, nanotechnology may sound like a great thing, but as I’ve mentioned in previous articles I’ve written on the subject, we should be wary of its seductive promises. Not only are nanoparticles potentially dangerous, but many of its uses are completely unnecessary.

Back in 2004, I wrote a piece about the top ten technologies that were around at the time, and nanotechnology wasn’t one of them. My reasoning for this was that nanotechnology, particularly in the field of medicine where it was being promoted the most, was entirely unnecessary because our bodies contain their own built-in “nanoparticles”, so to speak, that cause the body to heal itself naturally. The best nanotechnology in the world already exists inside you — it’s called your immune system.

But science has decided instead to try to engineer its own imitation of the immune system by constructing artificial nanoparticle “robots” to do the job instead. It’s an example of Man’s arrogance over nature. Instead of supporting the human body’s innate immune system technology, arrogant scientists want to overthrow it with their own micro-mechanical robots that attempt to serve the same role.

And now, with the nano technology mentioned here, Big Pharma could be embedding your body’s tissues with nanoparticle data that turns you into a compliant, monopoly-priced drug consumer whose medication habits can now be scanned right off your skin. That’s what Big Pharma wants, of course: Total control over your body. Combined with targeted lobbying of corrupt Washington lawmakers and bureaucrats, Big Pharma could achieve a “mandatory medication requirement” across the entire country, where every citizen is required to dose themselves with psychiatric drugs, statin drugs or vaccines. Your compliance will be verified with a nanotech scan that reads the nanodata right off your skin, and if you’re found to be non-compliant, you could be arrested and forcibly medicated on the spot.

Don’t think this is possible? Much of this has already come true with forced vaccinations of children. See the article I wrote in 2007, Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse for forced vaccinations as armed police and attack dogs stand guard (http://www.naturalnews.com/022267.html).

The conspiracy between Big Government and Big Pharma will always try to find a way to make you take more meds (whether you need them or not). This nano-protection technology could play right into their hands, providing an enforcement and tracking technology that would turn your body into a walking Big Pharma storage device.

It’s just one more reason to avoid taking pharmaceuticals in the first place (as if there weren’t enough already!).

If you want to see more about this, watch the video I’ve posted about Big Brother monitoring your medication: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=93626…

The National Security Agency has begun work on an “expansive” spy system that will monitor critical infrastructure inside the United States for cyber-attacks, in a move that detractors say could end up violating privacy rights and expanding the NSA’s domestic spying abilities.

The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed sources as saying that the NSA has issued a $100-million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to build a system dubbed “Perfect Citizen,” which will involve placing “sensors” at critical points in the computer networks of private and public organizations that run infrastructure, organizations such as nuclear power plants and electric grid operators.

In an email obtained by the Journal, an unnamed Raytheon employee describes the system as “Big Brother.”

“The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government…feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security,” the email states. “Perfect Citizen is Big Brother.”

“Raytheon declined to comment on this email,” the Journal reports.

Some officials familiar with Perfect Citizen see it “as an intrusion by the NSA into domestic affairs, while others say it is an important program to combat an emerging security threat that only the NSA is equipped to provide,” the Journal states.

The program is reportedly being funded under the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a program launched by the Bush administration in January, 2008, and continued under the Obama administration. The initiative is budgeted to cost $40 billion over several years.

Full article here

Unsuspecting motorists were stung for more than £8million in fines last year by a fleet of ‘drive-by spy cars’.

The 187,993 victims of the CCTV-equipped Smart cars included parents stopping momentarily to drop off children by the school gates.

Civil liberties campaigners described the cars as ‘a very dangerous escalation in Britain’s surveillance society’.

Big Brother Watch revealed there are currently 54 CCTV Smart cars patrolling 31 local council areas.

The cars include a mast, which is up to 15ft in length, with a periscope-mounted camera attached at the top.

Councils park the vehicles at known ‘hot-spots’ and junctions to monitor traffic.

Full article here

On a day when Ireland gave away another €2 billion to a failed bank we were also ‘informed’ that it was now essential to roll out private speed cameras as soon as possible. We are LED to believe that throughout the whole EU member states that this will save a total of 2000 lives due to a ‘change in behaviour’ of drivers.

This means that in Ireland, for the vast amounts of money this will cost and indeed generate for the government we will save 16 lives in Ireland when, to be quite frank, common sense driving would save many times more.

Unfortunately, people aren’t sensible and will always take chances when they’re driving. Furthermore the vast majority of fatal accidents occur on second class and country roads.

I doubt very much whether the intention is to put cameras on these roads. No, instead they will be placed in positions most likely to generate income this being where the most traffic is likely to be. This means cities and major highways, dual carriageways and motorways where the least fatal accidents occur.

So why then bother stating quite misleadingly that these cameras are to prevent road deaths when obviously that is neither the intention or in fact, the real purpose of what are actually surveillance cameras?

The word ‘surveillance’ should give a clue, but for those who may be hard of thinking, so I’ll say it again, SURVEILLANCE.

If these PRIVATE cameras are rolled out en mass across the country, it basically creates a prison for those who object to being filmed wherever they go and so may well choose to stay in their own immediate vicinity. However, this is only the start.

Are we to go down the road that as our closest neighbour has already done and see CCTV cameras actually put into people’s homes ‘to make sure they bring up their children in a correct manner as specified by the government’? At present there are approximately 20,000 of these installed with plans to extend the scheme to 200,000 families being spied on in, what they thought was the privacy of, their own homes.

Speed cameras are only the start of the roll out of a totalitarian police state. They are nothing more than revenue collectors and surveillance apparatus for the very government who can’t get enough of your cash willingly and so find other sinister methods to do so. This is simply the start of a rush to tyranny.

The following is the typical propaganda piece full of misleading and totally incorrect figures etc etc

Private speed cameras to target drivers after dark

Once upon a time, the United States was a land of unparalleled freedom.  The rest of the world envied the freedom that ordinary Americans had to think, say and do what they wanted.  But all of that has changed.  Now Americans have to fear that they will be tackled by a squad of security goons and dragged off to a detention facility somewhere if they spill a Pepsi on a flight attendant or take a few too many pictures of a public building.  The United States used to be the polar opposite of totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, but now America is rapidly becoming very much like them.  Due to the fear of a boogeyman living in a cave somewhere or some guy with explosive powder in his underwear we are all being forced to give up our freedoms and learn to live in a Big Brother police state. 

But have things really changed so much that we have to give up all of the cherished freedoms that our fathers and grandfathers fought and died for?  Haven’t there always been fanatics and crazies and criminals out there?  Why do we suddenly have to become so afraid of them? 

In the past, Americans would not let anyone make them live in fear.  If some unbalanced individual did something bad, it wasn’t the end of the world, was it?  No, in the past Americans dusted themselves off and continued to live as free men and women.  You see, when we live in fear and radically alter our way of life just to feel a little more secure, we lose.  We have let someone else steal our freedom and our dignity.

But now in the name of “security” all kinds of bizarre proposals have been implemented on the local, state and national levels.  Somehow we think that if everything that we do is watched, monitored and analyzed we will all be safer somehow.

Maybe we are safer and maybe we aren’t, but we are certainly a whole lot less free.

The following are 20 signs that the United States is rapidly becoming a totalitarian ”Big Brother” police state….   

#1) A new bill being pushed by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman would allow the U.S. military to round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely without a trial if they “pose a threat” or if they have “potential intelligence value” or for any other reason the President of the United States “considers appropriate”.

#2) Lawmakers in Washington D.C. working to create a new immigration bill have decided on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would be required to obtain.

#3) Barack Obama is backing a plan to create a national database to store the DNA of people who have been arrested but not necessarily convicted of a crime.

#4) Just to get on an airplane, Americans will now have to go through new full-body scanners that reveal every detail of our exposed bodies to airport security officials.

#5) If that wasn’t bad enough, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that airport screeners will begin roving through airports randomly taking chemical swabs from passengers and their bags to check for explosives.

#6) Starting this upcoming December, some passengers on Canadian airlines flying to, from or even over the United States without ever landing there, will only be allowed to board their flights once the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has determined they are not terrorists.

#7) Organic milk is such a threat that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in Pennsylvania.

#8) An NYPD officer has broken his silence and has confessed that innocent citizens are being set up and falsely arrested and ticketed in order to meet quotas.

#9) A growing number of police departments across the U.S. are turning to mobile camera systems in order to fight motor vehicle theft and identify unregistered cars.

#10) For decades, Arizona has been known as “the sunset state”, but lately many frustrated residents have started calling it “the surveillance state”.

#11) Judges and police in Florida have been caught using “secret codes” on tickets in the state of Florida.

#12) An extensive investigation has revealed that between 2003 and 2007, that state of Texas quietly gave hundreds of newborn baby blood samples to a U.S. Armed Forces laboratory for use in a forensics database.

#13) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#14) One 12-year-old girl in New York was recently arrested and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk.

#15) In Florida, students have been arrested by police for things as simple as bringing a plastic butter knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a picture of a gun.

#16) When a mother on a flight to Denver spanked both of her children and cussed out a flight attendant who tried to intervene, she suddenly found herself handcuffed and headed for prison.  Why?  She was charged with being a domestic terrorist under the Patriot Act.

#17) A new global treaty may force U.S. Internet service providers to spy on what you do online.

#18) A leaked Obama administration memo has revealed plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres of land from Montana to New Mexico.

#19) 56 percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll said that the U.S. government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.

#20) But one other recent poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with this statement: ”It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism.”

From the DailyCaller:

As the future of the Federal Reserve’s role in Americans’ lives is vigorously debated around the country, The Daily Caller took a look at the lighter side of the feared institution. Few know that the Fed produces, in-house, about a dozen different comic books on financial topics — complete with itself cast as a superhero…

The most recent comics are from 2008, and reference some timely topics. They always portray the Fed in a Big Brother role, but a positive, friendly, I’ll teach-you-how-to-ride-a-bike — rather than a total-government-surveillance — way

…The Fed distributes these comic books for free to high-school and college educators through their Web site. You can request your copy here.

Yes, this is real. View the images here.

Anybody who advises a friend to take out an Isa or gives them a similar tax-saving tip risks a £5,000 fine, experts warned yesterday.

They attacked proposed ‘Big Brother’ powers for HM Revenue and Customs which could ensnare those simply trying to help a friend, relative or colleague to cut their tax bill.

Innocent victims could include a person who mentions to a friend in the pub that an Isa is a way of saving £10,200 a year tax-free.

Even a vicar who encourages the congregation to donate money using the Gift Aid envelopes, rather than putting cash straight into the Sunday collection, may fall into the trap.

Charities could also be hit by the draconian new ‘tax avoidance’ law, experts claim.

It will make it an offence to hold any conversation – even in private, with friends – if it offers clues on how to pay less tax.

Full article here

A couple of weeks ago I wrote the following letter and sent it to Labour HQ, the Prime Ministers office and the Home Office.

I have yet to have a response back from anyone representing the Labour party.

To whom it may concern

I am a floating voter and someone who voted you into power in 97 after living through the last Toy administration.

I could never bring myself to vote Tory and consider myself a socially conscious voter however I am seriously considering voting Lib Democrat at the forthcoming election and I will tell you why.

Along with many other people I have talked to about this subject I am seriously concerned with how the current Labour administration has decimated our hard won civil liberties.

History shows that freedom and rights are hard to win and that a government rarely gives more power to the populace without a fight.

This is why it horrifies me and many others how easily our rights and freedoms have been given away under the pretext of fighting terrorism and crime.

The Liberal Democrats have a proposed freedom bill which aims to put these mistakes right and I cannot see any way for our country to regain these hard won rights until your administration has been removed from office.

I never thought I would say this but even the Tories seem more concerned about our civil rights than the current Labour administration.

I remember the 90’s when the previous Conservative administration brought in the Criminal Justice Bill and how outraged I was that a government could prevent us from listening to certain types of music and make it illegal for people to congregate freely without a permit. I remember hearing Labour attack the Tories in the house of commons for this bill and stupidly believed that your party was one in which the individuals right to assemble and protest would be protected from the excesses of government power.

However in the 13 years since you came to power the UK now resembles something not too far off George Orwell’s 1984.

We are monitored by hundreds of CCTV cameras a day, huge databases store all our personal details (which are then often lost), our internet usage is monitored and through the RIPA act you have given numerous authorities the right to spy on us and enter our homes without warrants.

Our right to remain silent has been removed, the right to protest severely limited and you have introduced an unfair and unbalanced extradition treaty with the USA.

However what worries me most and I would dearly like to hear an answer on this question as so far I have not heard any Labour minister manage to make a defence of the abuse of the anti-terrorism laws you have brought in. You claimed that tough anti-terrorism laws were needed to help fight Al-Qaeda but then you misuse these laws to

• Arrest Walter Wolfgang, an 82 year old who dared heckle anti-war comments at the Labour conference.
• Freeze Iceland’s bank accounts during the financial crisis.
• Stop, question and arrest numerous tourists and citizens who dared take photographs of public buildings and police officers.

Is it no wonder that a large percentage of the population is wary of allowing any further powers over our lives to be introduced when we can clearly see how this power is used.

I would dearly love to hear an explanation for this expansion and abuse of state power that fits in with the British culture of freedom and liberty and I would also like to hear what you are planning on doing to rectify the situation. Both the Lib Democrats and the Tories have plans for restoring our civil liberties but

as far as I know Labour has no such plans and only wants to further reduce them by introducing ID cards and more surveillance powers.

As an undecided voter living in a marginal constituency I could be all the difference between a Labour victory or a hung parliament.

If you could answer my questions and concerns about the direction your government has taken the country it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

If you are an American, you probably assume that this is a free country. So if you agree to undergo imaging tests — which cost you or your insurance company hundreds and even thousands of dollars and may subject you to radiation — you have every right to see the results.

After all, it’s your body, your test, your money and your health involved right?

According to a new report just published in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, most doctors surveyed don’t think the answer is “yes”. In fact, they don’t want patients to have direct access to their imaging test results because “it could lead to increased patient anxiety and unrealistic demands on physician time”.

You read that right: physicians with a “Big Brother” mindset apparently think people having imaging tests are incapable of dealing with the outcomes without suffering from so much anxiety they must be protected from seeing the results. And, bottom line, these docs just don’t want to spend the time answering questions about the imaging test results, anyway.

Those are the conclusions of research performed at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which looked at the possibility of radiologists using the Internet to communicate imaging results quickly and directly to patients. Eight radiologists and seven referring physicians participated in the study which used two focus groups to gather information.

“While physicians participating in this study generally agreed that patients should take more responsibility for their own health care and be better informed, and that the system for reporting needs to be improved, only a small minority of radiologists and referring physicians supported patients being offered unlimited direct access to radiology test results,” said Annette J. Johnson, MD, lead author of the study, in a statement to media.

The radiologists and referring physicians admitted there are potential benefits of an online system for patient access. For example, patients clearly want to see their test results and so online access would increase patient satisfaction. In addition, the Internet access could also offer patients hyperlinks to educational material so they could find out more about their tests and conditions.

However, the doctors in the study were loaded with arguments against this direct patient access. For starters, they apparently assume patients are too uninformed, stupid, or incompetent to understand the reports. And they don’t want to have to spend time answering a lot of questions from people about their tests, either.

“The greatest concern revolved around patients’ ability to understand written reports. Participants predicted that patients, who may not fully comprehend the report’s content or place its meaning into proper context, would experience increased anxiety if they did not have prompt access to a physician to assist them in understanding the results and implications. They also thought that referring physicians and radiologists might experience a dramatically increased number of telephone calls from patients for clarification of report contents — an increase that they could not realistically accommodate,” Dr. Johnson said.

For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/…